Two Views of the Gospel

I am in the process of making a study on the Emerging Church and its leaders so when I ran across this article I thought it blended in perfectly. Many of our cherished Christian beliefs and doctrines are being questioned and re-interpreted by church leaders today. So what is the difference? Maybe the following article can help you distinguish between Biblical truth and a man-centered message.

The old view of God used to be that the contact with non-Christians used to be “creation”. That God made you and God has authority over you and everything that you are about. But now these days the man-centered modern approach is …..”love”. God loves you and His authority is secondary, if even brought up at all.

The old way is - God is the King who will save you. The new way – God is a friend; He’s going to help you.

The view of humanity used to be – in our mind we were at enmity with God and that no one seeks God. Now…well, we seek the truth but we just don’t have all the information. The old view used to be…We need a new nature, a new mind, a new heart, a new will. Another words we need to be regenerated. Now…we need love, help, and some friendship.

We use to say that we were rebels against God. We have a sinful nature and we need to be reconciled to God. How could we even begin to reevaluate this? Can I ask you this? What is bigger than that? Name it! We can’t fathom the power of God. We can’t even come close to understanding how powerful God is. That “things” just happen because He wants it to. We might look at something like a tsunami and say “Wow that is power!” It isn’t even close to the wrath of God being poured out on the sinner in Hell where it is horrible and eternal. The wrath of God is coming at people and it is going to get millions. What a horrifying thought! Now all of a sudden enters Jesus who says – “Hold it. I’ll pay the price. The wrath of God will be satisfied in Me.” Now (because of Jesus) you and I can be reconciled to God through repentance and faith. Purpose? Fulfillment? Happiness? Money? Health? It’s nothing compared to the Gospel! But these days we hear “Oh we’re just imperfect. We just make little mistakes”.

In the old days we would say that we need salvation from guilt, the power of sin, and the wrath of God. Now…just the consequences of sin is something that we might want to deal with. Many both in and out of the church just want the consequences of sin and someone’s unhappiness dealt with. But no preaching of sin, righteousness, and judgment, please.

Humanity is dead and lost…Now, just sick and ignorant.

Even the view of Jesus has changed. Jesus exists to gather a kingdom to receive honor and glory to which one day He will turn it over to His Father. When Jesus came to this earth be didn’t just become a human being and take on a different nature. He also took on a human nature as well as being God. Jesus is God in the flesh. If Jesus had just appeared on the same day and said – Ok. Go ahead and crucify me. Let’s get this over with so I can pay the price for sin. That would have purchased neutrality, if you will. You and I would not have received that wrath of God because our fine would have been paid in Jesus but it would have left us in limbo because there would have been nothing in us to commend us to God.

Our sins would have been forgiven, but why would God take us to Heaven to be with Him? Except for Jesus’ sinless life of obedience, fulfilling all righteousness, fulfilling all the laws. That is why Jesus didn’t just do away with the laws. Jesus came to fulfill them so that when we die if we have repented and put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, if our sins have been forgiven because of the punishment and death on the cross, the punishment and suffering, the blood that was shed for the forgiveness of sins, so that we can be commended to God because of Jesus life of perfect obedience. So His death and His life of obedience are equally important. Not anymore though…well, just His death. Not so much his life, but just His death we will look at. Our theology must be correct so we can correctly understand the Gospel and the true nature of Jesus.

We use to call Him our Priest, our King, our Prophet. Now…He’s just kinda priestly. He’s just there to help us. It used to be that we would have an attitude of submission to Jesus’ Lordship. Not anymore…What do I mean by that? We can’t have the attitude of wanting to have our sins forgiven but we want to stay in them. Nope. In order for Him to be Savior, He must be Lord too.

The old way of looking at the response to the Gospel…It was a command, a loving command to be obeyed…NOW! Today…it is an invitation waiting to be accepted. In the old days assurance of salvation came from the Holy Spirit, applying Biblical concepts to be growing in holiness. Now…it comes from a counselor saying…Oh, don’t worry about it. You’re saved, now get out of here.

Now the question is...Which side is right? There are decent people on both sides of the argument. You and I need to figure this out. Don’t believe me, this blog, or your pastor, or Sunday school teacher. Just go read your Bible and see what it says.

Be sure and check out the link below from Will Metzger who inspired this article.
Two Views of the Gospel